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Police deny permission for Elgar Parishad Pune conclave: Here’s what you need to know
Police in Maharashtra’s Pune on Wednesday denied permission to retired justice BG Kolse Patil for organising an Elgar Parishad conclave in the city on December 31
Police in Maharashtra’s Pune on Wednesday denied permission to retired justice BG Kolse Patil for organising an Elgar Parishad conclave in the city on December 31, citing the Covid-19 pandemic, the detection of a deadly new strain of the virus in the UK, and the need to maintain law and order. Here is what the event is about and why it has been in the news over the last few years:
1. Caste clashes broke out in Pune’s Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, and left one person dead and 40 injured a day after an Elgar Parishad was organised in Pune.
2. The conclave was organised ahead of the bicentenary of the 1818 Battle of Koregaon in which the British army, manned primarily by Dalit soldiers, defeated the Peshwas, the then rulers who instituted oppressive caste practises.
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3. Fourteen academics and activists have been arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.
4. The National Investigation Agency, which took over the probe into the violence from Pune police, has blamed Maoists for it.
5. According to a charge sheet filed in the case, Maoists were behind organising and funding of the conclave that was followed by the violence in Bhima Koregaon.
6. The Akhil Bhartiya Brahman Mahasangh had requested the Pune police to exercise restraint in acting on the request by Patil for permission to organise the Elgar Parishad this year.
7. Patil has described Elgar Parishad an anti-caste conference and had said he would move the high court if the permission was denied for it.
